Locals in the Limelight

I first met Bonnie Burroughs one day at the local hair salon. We had never been officially introduced. We became fast friends, largely because of our mutual love of reading. We discussed different books and recommended some of our favorite authors. A few weeks later, she came into my office with a bag full of books. I couldn’t believe that someone I had met only once would do something so thoughtful. Telling her I would get them back to her as soon as possible, she told me to just donate or share them with someone else when I was done.

Since then, she has brought me many bags of books. What I now know, is that is just Bonnie. She enters a room with an energy and sparkle that makes people want to be her friend. I didn’t know her husband Orrin very well, so I was excited to meet with them for an interview. Their home is furnished with beautiful antiques, lace curtains and family photos that give it that homey, nostalgic feel. A large bookshelf holds many favorite books and scores of her husband’s favorite classic westerns on DVD. Orrin is a kind, tender-hearted man with a sweet smile.

Although neither one of them was born in Odessa, each of them grew up on a family farm. Orrin was born in Tazwell, Va. in 1937. He was one of 15 children and has seven brothers and seven sisters. Including himself, five of the boys served in the military. Several of his siblings had left home by the time he was born; eight of them are still living. He is particularly close to his little sister Betty, who he used to carry on his back through snowdrifts to get to school which was a mile away.

His parents were ranchers (cattle, hogs and sheep), and his father had a large garden. “You had to raise and grow your food with that many kids,” Orrin said. Back then, they didn’t have freezers; all the meat was canned. He must have seen the look on my face because he reassured me how tasty it was. They had a visitor one time who asked his parents how long it would take them to get used to the humidity. They were informed that if they hadn’t grown up there, they probably never would.

Bonnie grew up in Ferdinand, Idaho, the daughter of wheat farmers who also had cattle and horses. She had three brothers and two sisters. When she was six, she lost her three-year-old brother who had the croup. He was a sweet boy who once took it upon himself to pick his mother a bouquet of flowers right from the neighbor’s yard.

When Bonnie was very young, the farm wasn’t making it, and the family relocated to Spokane so her father could pursue his dream of being a train engineer. He started as a fireman on a steam engine in Hillyard. By the time Bonnie was in junior high, her father had passed the test to become an engineer.

Orrin and Bonnie met on a blind date while Orrin was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane. Some mutual friends were dating and invited Bonnie to go to the lake because they had “an extra guy.” Bonnie’s parents insisted on meeting him. He passed muster, and their daughter was allowed to go on the date. She was 16, he was 18. They married two years later, in 1957, living in Airway Heights and then Spokane. In 1958, their first son, with a birth weight of 10.5 lbs and 25 inches long was stillborn. “He was just too big,” Bonnie said. She believes something went wrong during the attempted delivery. After he died, Bonnie would sing “My Bonnie lies over the ocean,” changing the words to her beloved son’s name. We all sat there quietly, her stoic husband nodding while my eyes welled up with tears.

“I was Catholic, so we didn’t use birth control,” Bonnie said and smiled. In 1961, they were blessed with their son Steve, followed by Dave in 1964, Ann “Missy” in 1966 and Mark in 1971. Steve, a transmission builder, lives in Spokane with his fiancé Diane. Their next son Dave is a truck driver and lives in Oregon with his girlfriend Sam. Daughter Ann lives in Texas and works as a secretary at a Christian school. She is married to Dave Richardson and they have two children, Addison and Jacob. Mark and his girlfriend Nicci live in Topeka, Kan., and are both veterans of the Gulf War.

After 13 years in the Air Force, Orrin got a piece of steel in his eye which developed into a cataract, and he had to be discharged. They moved to Odessa for two years, and Orrin worked for Bud and Wally King. They got word that the family farm was up for sale again back in Virginia and decided to take the kids and move back. Unfortunately, shortly after they arrived, the farm was sold, so Orrin went to work in construction. They stayed in Virginia for 12 years, living in the country right down the street from Orrin’s parents. “Our kids loved it,” Bonnie said. “They really got to know their grandparents. Grandpa taught them things like how to put up hay the old-fashioned way.”

During the Carter administration, interest rates were 21%, and the bottom dropped out of the construction industry. Orrin and his family returned to Odessa because he had heard that Larry Zagelow needed help. He worked at the Zagelow ranch for five years helping with wheat, cattle and hay. In the early 80s, Bonnie went to work at the Odessa school district as a cook for 21 years before she retired. Around 1983, Orrin started his own business, “Burroughs Painting & Repair.” They purchased the home they live in now in 1990. Orrin spent an entire winter digging out the basement for their home by hand. He is still grateful for the conveyer belt that Rick Smith loaned him to transfer the rocks and dirt out of the house into a truck.

I had to ask Bonnie about all those years at the school cafeteria. “In the early years, everything was homemade, even the bread. The kids loved it when we did a salad bar as the main course with meat, eggs, cheese etc. One student she ran into years later, fondly remembered her Chicken a la King, saying it was her favorite. I knew she had to have many funny stories to share. When she thought about one in particular, she got so tickled, she could hardly tell me. “I don’t know if I should share this,” she said. I said to her, “well, now, you must!”

Apparently, one afternoon, just as the lunch crowd was gathering, Bonnie was pulling a huge tray of corndogs out of the oven. With a large group of onlookers (she remembers Landon Lobe and Dalles Deife being there). She dropped the whole tray, and corndogs rolled everywhere. Her eyes got huge as a horrifying thought ran through her head. “I was stunned, there was nothing else available, and all these boys were staring at me in the lunch line.” One of the boys broke the silence and told her in no uncertain terms that they were hungry, and to just “pick em up.” She told me how she carefully wiped them all off, and the unconcerned boys wolfed them down.

Bonnie retired in 2004, Orrin in 2009. They share a love of traveling, especially flying to visit their kids. When asked what celebrity they would most like to meet, they were in agreement with John McCain. “He just seems so gentle and sensible,” she said.

Bonnie loves watching NFL football and stock-car racing (her oldest son raced stock cars on a dirt track). She is a devout Catholic and plays the organ for Mass on Sundays. She and her husband respect their differences, even religion.

Her passion is music, she has played the accordion since she was 13. She hails from a musically talented family. Her sister also played accordion, and her brother played guitar and banjo. She loves to play for the residents at Quail Court and at the hospital whenever she can. Bonnie Campbell will often accompany her on guitar.

Orrin and Bonnie share a love of flea markets, yard sales and antiquing. For them, it is all about the thrill of the hunt, finding that obscure, unique item. I have seen them buy older pieces which Orrin expertly refurbishes, renovates and transforms. According to his wife, he is also quite the gardener, known for his tomatoes in particular. I was interested in asking his advice on some problems I had been having with my tomatoes splitting at the top. Orrin smiled and said “mine do that too sometimes.”

Recently, they have both had their share of health struggles. Orrin is recovering from his third arterial bypass surgery to restore circulation in his foot. Bonnie has had thyroid cancer and pleurisy. They removed her thyroid and lymph node, and she is hoping her throat is cancer free now.

As we were wrapping up our talk, she was tenderly rubbing his foot and showing me his surgery scar. They take care of one another, their mutual love and respect is evident. Despite everything they have been through, they live an active lifestyle, doing the things they love as much as possible. And much like those corndogs, when it comes to life’s beautiful ups and downs, they just “roll with it.”